20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has been kind enough to supply me with 3 copies of Atlas Shrugged: Part I on DVD to give away. Atlas Shrugged: Part I, a movie I haven’t seen, is based off the book by Ayn Rand, which I haven’t read. I have no idea what this movie is about, but people generally seem to consider the book a classic. Based on the trailer, Atlas Shrugged is something about trains, a man of uncertain identity and a woman who wants to be a train conductor and is not, by any means, a sequal to the 2010 film Unstoppable (which was also made by 20th Century Fox but not based on a book). Again, I haven’t read the book or seen the film, but don’t let that stop you from entering to win a DVD copy of this film!

1) Retweet this tweet.
2) Post a comment on this post. By sure to include your e-mail or Twitter name, so I can contact you if you win.

Deadline is November 6th, 2011 at Midnight. I will contact winners on the 7th. Giveaway open to US and Canadian residents only. Winners will be notified by twitter or e-mail.

Just a reminder, I’m giving away a hardbound copy of Christopher Moore’s Bite Me. The details of this contest can be found here.

Speaking of giveaways, the Bibliophilic Book Blog is giving away a eReader or a $200 giftcard. Don’t consider this an encouragement of you entering (because that lessens my chances of winning). I’m just throwing it out there so that you are aware there giveaways in the sea besides mine. (But seriously, go ahead and enter.)

To celebrate the paperback release of Bite Me: A Love Story by Christopher Moore, HarperCollins was nice to supply me with a copy to give away to some lucky reader. Even better, in my opinion, mistakenly sent me a hardbound copy of the book. Sweet, I know.

From the inside cover:

The city of San Francisco is being stalked by a huge shaved vampyre cat named Chet, and only I, Abby Normal, emergency backup mistress of the Greater Bay Area night, and my manga-haired love monkey, Foo Dog, stand between the ravenous monster and a bloody massacre of the general public.

Whoa. And this is a love story? Yup. ‘Cept there’s no whining. See, while some lovers were born to run, Jody and Tommy were born to bite. Well, reborn, that is, now that they’re vampires. Good thing theirs is an undying love, since their Goth Girl Friday, Abby Normal, imprisoned them in a bronze statue.

Abby wants to be a bloodsucking fiend, too, but right now she’s really busy with other stuff, like breaking in a pair of red vinyl thigh-high Skankenstein® platform boots and wrangling her Ph.D.-candidate boyfriend, Steve (the love monkey). And then there’s that vampire cat Chet, who’s getting bigger and smarter—and thirstier—by the minute. Abby thought she and Steve could handle the kitty cat on their own, mais non . . .

Before you can say “OMG! WTF?” Tommy and Jody are sprung from captivity, and join forces with Abby, Steve, the frozen-turkey-bowling Safeway crew, the Emperor of San Francisco and his trusty dogs Lazarus and Bummer, Abby’s gay Goth friend Jared, and SF’s finest Cavuto and Rivera to hunt big cat and save the city. And that’s when the fun really begins.

Bite Me is the third book in Christopher Moore’s vampire series following, Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck. I know you may be tired of vampire fiction (I know I am), but keep in mind, his vampire series started back in 1995 before this whole Twilight-thing started. I hold Christopher Moore and his books in pretty high regard. I have yet to read a book by him that I did not like.

How to enter:

1) Post a comment on this post
or
2) Tweet about it by Retweeting this tweet of mine.

You can enter twice by doing both.

I’ll select a winner on March 22nd, 2011.

What is BookYap you ask? It’s a site that is designed to help you find books.

You can search by categories like Thrill Seeker, Foodie, English Major, and Creative Cat. From there you can filter out the books by adjusting the length of the book, the amount of hype it has, and its publication date. It’s pretty nifty. It does have a couple of issues that I feel it needs to address. The very first thing I tried to search for was Paper Towns by John Green. No results. For shame! I loved that book. Luckily, I’m told it’s still in its beta so there is still time to work out the kinks and make it fantastic.

They are also holding a contest to give away a Kindle. Who doesn’t want one of those?!

I came across this post that highlights some of the stranger things that you can stumble across while searching for Waldo in Martin Handford’s Where’s Waldo/Wally? books.

9 Strange Things Found While Searching for Waldo

Speaking of things that are hard to find, Karen over at the blog Munrovian won the Murder By The Book contest. However, she has completely neglected her duties of responding to the e-mail I sent her asking where I can send the present. Shame on you Karen! No, but seriously. E-mail me? :-)

After residing in Portland for close to 4 1/2 years now, you’d think that SOMEBODY would have told me about the cute little bookshop along Hawthorne called Murder By The Book.

It’s a bookshop that is exclusively tailored toward the mystery-lover demographic. When I entered earlier today, while finishing up some last minute Christmas shopping for myself, the kind ladies who worked there immediately offered me cookies and cider. And no, this wasn’t some sample used as a ploy to get me to spend $4 in some attached cafe. This was actual cookies and cider that were free out of the goodness of their murder-loving hearts. This is a pleasant surprise, I said to myself while munching on a star shaped cookie and perusing the noir section. Perhaps it was the cider, perhaps it was that I wasn’t paying attention, but as luck would have it I bumped in to a little table piled with presents. The sign on the table stated that these presents were a collection of books that you could purchase and not know what they were. Because I love presents and a good mystery, I bought two of these bundles. You love a good mystery too, right?

I thought so. I bought two of these. One for me, one for you. You can have it. I practically insist. So I am holding a contest. You can enter in the following ways:

1) You can get one entry by leaving a comment and telling me one of your favorite mystery books
2) You can get another by tweeting about this contest (You can use this link http://tr.im/I85e). Send me an @thebookpirate to let me know.
3) Lastly, you can get another by posting about this on your blog

That’s a possibility of 3 entries. On December 31st I will draw a winner and send you one of the bundles the books (still wrapped). You can even pick out which bundle you would like.

Also, MBTB has a blog which you should totally check out.

Bust out your Crayola 120ct Crayons! It’s time for a coloring contest.

Patrick Wensink, author of Sex Dungeon For Sale!, is hosting a coloring contest where you can win fabulous prizes. And by fabulous prizes I mean a selection of Wensink’s favorite books of 2009. You can win signed copies of 4 books (Help! A Bear is Eating Me! [my review] and Fool are included, autographed BW). Oddly enough, he does not include a copy of his own book, Sex Dungeon For Sale. Perhaps Patrick does not think that highly of himself or maybe he is simply trying to save on postage. Regardless, you should totally enter.

Here’s how it works. Download and print the coloring page that you fancy. Each page is based off of a story from SD4S (My Son Thinks He’s French, Jesus Toast, Chicken Soup for the Kidnapper’s Soul). Color it in either by hand or digitally, then e-mail it to patrickwensink@gmail.com with your name, address and phone number. The deadline is December 14th. You can check out his rather random web site for more details if you still feel ill informed about this contest.